Gale Scott, Crain's: "One proposal -- not yet in the form of a bill -- would limit the number of suits by tightening New York's lawyer-friendly 'comparative negligence' rules to match those of most other states." The idea would be to bar suits in cases where physicians' negligence was a less important cause of the injury than the negligence of others. According to figures supplied by lawyer/insurance executive Eric Poe, New York had the nation's second-highest rate of malpractice claims at 23 per 1,000 physicians in 2003, following only Florida at 28 per 1,000. (via Andy Barovick).